Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers both existing and potential and all readers of this site a Happy New Year.
Sorry for not updating you all in a while but once I get stuck in hatchery mode by late November it’s very hard to get time to sit down at a computer. Today is actually the first day since early December that I have not been chasing my tail. It would be fair to say that we have had quite a wet few months since the closing of the fishing. I know some of you have been suffering drought conditions but it has been the opposite here.
For the months of October, November and December rainfall was 418.4, 416 and 451.4mm respectively. That translates to 16.5, 16.4 and 17.8 inches which even by our standards is a lot of rain. Total for the 2011 was 3242.8mm or 127.67”. By comparison 2010 was 2167.2mm or 85.32”. To put these in perspective 2011 was above average and 2010 was well below average. We had some extreme winds also with the Beech tree on the Doolough corner of the house reduced to a 20 foot stump. The phone system was also taken out by lightening on December 31st.
For this reason netting was at times impossible due to extreme condtions. Our final catch was just short of 800. We had a lot good Springers of approximately 15lbs but I was surprised not to see some bigger fish and I even thought we might have picked up a 20lbs fish. They either were not there or they eluded us.
There were not a huge number of 1sw females so this should auger well for the Spring fishing. That would be my prediction for this Spring but don’t forget I’m human after all.
Sadly Sea trout spawning was in my opinion poor but I would have been expecting that with the poor returns.
I did say I was human so therefore I must apologize to three more people for errors in the newsletter; John Scanlan, Martin Cellier and Lars Berg from Sweden. The only thing I can say is that you will have to come back, catch fish and I will give you glowing reports.
Finally I should mention that Delphi’s longest serving ghillie Paddy Heneghan is in hospital at present. His spirits are good so hopefully he will make it out for the new fishing season to keep an eye on everyone.
If there is any more news before the start of the season I will keep you posted, if not I will be blogging regularly again from February 1st.
D.McEvoy